


Unfold Your Untold Story

by relmer



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Angst, M/M, So much angst, mention of character deaths, no happy ending, race tells the stories of his friends, sprace isn’t the main focus yikes, why can i never let him be happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-03-19 07:55:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13700184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/relmer/pseuds/relmer
Summary: “You’re doing the right thing.”Antonio and Smalls were sitting on the bench, the children on the new playground.“Telling the stories of the others, I mean,” she explained. “You’re not letting our history fade, and I doubt those kids will ever forget, with the way you told them.”





	Unfold Your Untold Story

**Author's Note:**

> this is a mess and at some points i’m kinda rambling oops
> 
> i nearly cried while writing this
> 
> and yes the title is from falsettos

_Spot Conlon wasn’t ever really known as a hero. He was an intimidating figure, a lot of people in Brooklyn knowing his name. Recognizable almost everywhere in New York City, the newsie leader had a soft side that only his newsies knew about._

_Whenever a young newsie was sick, he would take care of them as much as he could and pay their rent._

_Whenever a newsie was hurt, he’d help patch them up._

_He taught the younger newsies, and a few of the older ones, how to read. Their sales always improved after those lessons._

_He took care of his borough, because it was his home. After being taking in by the newsies, like a lot of them, he grew closer to the others. They were his family, and he’d protect them as long as he could. He promised that even when his years of selling newspapers were over, he would continue making sure they were okay._

_He was loyal to his newsies, and they were loyal to him. Due to his large amount of power, to be a Brooklyn newsie was an outstanding thing. If another newsie heard the name of the city, they’d be out of there before anyone could say “Joseph Pulitzer.”_

_Even though he was young, Spot Conlon was by no means dumb. He had an abundance of intelligence that very few other newsies did. It was the main thing that helped him raise in the ranks, also keeping him alive. Dozens of newsies would do anything to be in charge of Brooklyn, and some did try. But every time, Spot was always the victor._

_He was a foe to many, and a friend to few. Only some were able to weasel their way close enough to become his friend. If you thought he was loyal to his newsies, that was nothing compared to his friends._

_There merely being about half a dozen, Spot Conlon’s friends were protected by him in countless ways. He’d do anything he could for them, which indeed he did._

– – –

Antonio “Racetrack” Higgins smiled, the young children around him staring up at him in wonder. The former newsie had grown so much older. Everyday he told stories of the people he used to know to the kids that would visit him at the same bench.

“Were you one of his friends?” one asked.

The man nodded. “His _best_ friends.” He knew Spot would be cursing him, wherever he was.

“What happened to him?”

Antonio’s face fell just slightly. “He...he lost his life in the war, along with a lot of the others.”

He started listing off the names of those former newsies who sacrificed themselves. By the time he finished, tears were streaming down his face.

“Frank,” a mother said when he finished, “let’s leave him alone, okay?”

Antonio looked up and his eyes widened at the sight of his old friend, Smalls. She gave him a knowing look; she was once also a newsie, and went through the Strike of 1899 with him.

– – –

“You’re doing the right thing.”

Antonio and Smalls were sitting on the bench, the children on the new playground.

“Telling the stories of the others, I mean,” she explained. “You’re not letting our history fade, and I doubt those kids will ever forget, with the way you told them.”

The man only nodded. The last story he had yet to tell was the story of himself, and how he became a newsie. He was saving it until the time was right, which he felt would be soon.

“Tell them.”

He did.

– – –

_Antonio Higgins was born in international waters, on a boat heading from Italy to America, where he and his family were supposed to start a new life. The thing was... he and his mother were the only members of his family on the boat. His mother died giving birth to him, leaving a young boy who would change his new world._

_He grew up in an orphanage, with someone who would soon become one of his best friends; Albert DaSilva. The two of them met another boy, JoJo, who was instead raised by nuns._

_One day, the trio cane across a boy who looked even worse than they did. He introduced himself as Crutchie, and he was also orphaned. He became a newsie after being saved from a few boys by Jack Kelly._

_Little did anyone know at the time, that boy who walked with the aid of a single wooden crutch would lead the trio into a new life._

_Fast forward a few years, Antonio being almost sixteen. He started going by Racetrack because he sold at the Sheepshead races. He and his two friends had been newsies for a few years, and Race somehow managed to rise up to second-in-command of the Manhattan newsies._

_He’d made several friends, allies, and enemies — the latter being the Delancey brothers. Morris and Oscar somewhat worked for_ The World, _but they were higher in power than the newsies. Because of that, they constantly tried to soak them, or beat them up. The brothers were lower in power than who the newsies called Mr. Weasel. He was the one they bought their papers from._

_Another enemy was Snyder, who ran a jail for underaged kids, called the Refuge. He usually took in kids who lived on the street or were more misbehaving newsies. The more he did, the more money he got from the city, which went into his own pocket. Race found himself in the Refuge a few times, though he always escaped or was let out._

_In 1899, Joseph Pulitzer, who ran_ The World, _decided to raise the price of the papers. It used to be fifty cents per hundred, but he raised it to sixty cents. Of course, the newsies wouldn’t oblige. So what did they do?_

_They went on strike._

_There are some gory details, but they aren’t as important. After a city-wide newsies rally, all the newsies of New York were officially on strike. They managed to win, with the help of Theodore Roosevelt, who was the governor at the time. The price for the papers went down._

_Years later came the war. Countless men, including many former newsies, were drafted to fight. Race was one of the few who wasn’t, and he heard the names of those who died after the war was over. The only one of his friends who survived was Specs, though he died two years later._

_Race did the only thing he was used to doing: he talked. He told the stories of his friends and the other newsies..._

– – –

“...And after doing so for a long time, Antonio ‘Racetrack’ Higgins finished telling his own, at the age of sixty-two.” Smalls cleared her throat, refusing to let tears fall. “That is the story of a man who changed the world.”

**Author's Note:**

> hi pls give feedback i love u


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